Certainly the Committee did not delay carrying out the order of the House in the matter of Crompton’s petition, as the evidence was taken on the same day as the order was given.[465] Evidently some little “engineering” had taken place as a comparison of the evidence with the series of questions and answers prepared beforehand will show.[466] If the record of the proceedings is a correct account of what took place at the meeting, it is difficult to believe that the chairman and at least one witness had not the evidence already before them. On 24th March the Committee presented its report, when it was ordered to be printed and to lie on the table. Again, during the preceding four days, petitions had been presented from Blackburn and Preston, drawing attention to the parlous state of public affairs, and insisting that the lower classes had difficulty in obtaining a bare subsistence; that the middle classes were rapidly sinking to the position of the lower; and suggesting similar remedies to those of their fellow-petitioners at Bolton.[467]
So far as Parliament was concerned, Crompton’s petition now lay in abeyance for three months, and his activity in keeping alive interest in it is described in his letter of 15th April,[468] at which time a state of insurrection prevailed in Manchester and in other places for miles around the town. On 11th May Mr. Perceval was assassinated, and shortly afterwards the Ministry, of which he had been the head, resigned, and it was not easy to form a new one. Crompton’s case must have had influential support, otherwise it could hardly have been kept to the front in the confusion of these days. French evidently believed that the death of Mr. Perceval prevented Crompton obtaining a larger amount than that which was granted. This may have been so, but a perusal of Mr. Lee’s letter does not give much ground for the belief.[469]
On 24th June the matter again came before the House of Commons, when Lord Stanley, who had been chairman of the Committee charged with the case, brought it forward, and in his speech repeated the arguments of the petition,[470] and ended by moving “That a sum not exceeding £5000 be granted to Mr. Crompton as a remuneration for his invention,” which was formally seconded by Mr. Blackburne, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed himself satisfied that this remuneration was deserved. The only other member who appears to have addressed the House on this occasion was Mr. D. Giddy, who, so far as his speech is recorded, expressed no definite opinion as to the adequacy of the grant, but suggested that, as he considered the case of a “transcendent” character, it should be made without fee or deduction. The resolution was then agreed to, and the following day was formally ratified.[471]
Throughout the proceedings Crompton had studiously refrained from expressing any opinion as to the sum to which he thought himself entitled, trusting rather to “British generosity” and “to the dignity of the giver and the merit of the receiver,” but it is clear that he was bitterly disappointed with the amount of the grant.[472] It can hardly have come as a surprise to his friends, although it is equally clear that they thought that he ought to have received at least double the amount. The statement of Mr. Lee that “Crompton’s plain appearance has been in his favour by inducing the members to suppose that he would be satisfied with a small grant and therefore they were willing to assist him” is significant both as regards gaining their support of a grant, and its amount, although it is hard to believe that the £10,000 which Mr. Lee thought reasonable would have roused much opposition.[473] Moreover, although the suggestion of Mr. Giddy that the £5000 should be paid without any fee or deduction was included in the final resolution, it appears that it was not strictly carried out, and that the sum Crompton actually received was considerably reduced by expenses.[474]
After the grant had been made, anxious to provide for his sons, Crompton embarked upon the bleaching business, with two of them as partners, at Over Darwen, four miles from Bolton. He also entered into a partnership with another son and with a Mr. Wylde, as cotton merchants and spinners, while with two other sons he continued his old business of spinning and manufacturing at Bolton.[475] As regards the bleaching concern, “the unfavourable state of the times, the inexperience and mismanagement of his sons, a bad situation, and a tedious lawsuit, conspired in a very short time to put an end to this establishment.”[476] The business into which he had entered with his son and Mr. Wylde appears to have succeeded little better. After a considerable loss the partnership was dissolved, and Crompton’s son, taking £1500 as his share of capital, set up in business on his own account at Oldham, which again was a failure. Even in the concern at Bolton there was disharmony, and ultimately the sons left it and Crompton carried it on alone.[477]
By 1824, having then reached the age of seventy years, he was reduced to poverty. The end of his career is recorded by John Kennedy, and surely no one could have left a record based upon more intimate and sympathetic knowledge of Crompton’s trials and achievements: “Messrs. Hicks & Rothwell, of Bolton, myself and some others, in that neighbourhood and in Manchester, had in 1824 recourse to a second subscription, to purchase a life annuity for him, which produced £63 per annum. The amount raised for this purpose was collected in small sums, from one to ten pounds, some of which were contributed by the Swiss and French spinners, who acknowledged his merits and pitied his misfortunes. At the same time his portrait was engraved for his benefit, and a few impressions were disposed of: he enjoyed this small annuity only two years. He died June 26th, 1827.”[478]
In the year following that in which the annuity was purchased a movement, in which a Mr. J. Brown, of Bolton, was the prominent figure, was set on foot to bring Crompton’s case again before Parliament, with a view to a second grant. The pamphlet, to which references have already been made, was written by Mr. Brown and published with extracts from Crompton’s correspondence; a memorial was drawn up, which, according to French, was extensively signed by inhabitants of Bolton, the application for signatures being confined to that town, and in 1826 a petition was presented to Parliament.[479]
From French’s account of the effort, it may be gathered that it aroused no widespread interest, and it is significant that when John Kennedy wrote his Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton in 1830 he made no mention of it. Probably he thought, as one cannot help thinking at the present day, that it was unfortunate that the effort was made. It must have been apparent at that time, with Crompton well over seventy years of age, that a grant of a large sum of money would be of little use to him even had there been any possibility of an application being successful. Its only virtue was that it gave Parliament an opportunity of increasing the inadequate grant made in 1812. But, even as regards that grant, one is compelled to recognise that, had it been larger, it is unlikely, taking into account the peculiar difficulties with which Crompton had to contend, that his position in 1824 would have been very different from what it was. Instead of making a grant of a lump sum in 1812, the more suitable method of reward in Crompton’s case and, as a general rule, in all such cases, would have been that of his friends twelve years later: to have granted him a suitable pension.
As already mentioned, Crompton died in the sixth month of 1827. When French published the first edition of his book in 1859, Crompton’s memory was in danger of neglect, but, mainly owing to the interest thus aroused, the danger was averted, and when he published his third edition in 1862, a monument had been erected over Crompton’s grave in the churchyard of his native parish,[480] and a statue was in course of preparation, the cost of both being defrayed by voluntary public subscription.
The statue which stands in Nelson Square, Bolton, was unveiled on 24th September 1862, when an address was given by Mr. Henry Ashworth, cotton spinner,[481] in which he spoke of the effect of the inventions of Crompton and others upon the development of the cotton trade and upon the people of Bolton and Lancashire. On the same occasion “Mr. Rickson, pointing to Mr. John Crompton, the son of the inventor, who was seated by the side of the statue, expressed hope that they would not forget him, but would raise a subscription to place him above indigence for the remainder of his days.”[482] Apparently something was done in this direction, as in the next month Lord Palmerston directed that a gratuity of £50 should be made to him, and it is a remarkable fact, in view of the conditions that prevailed when his father received his grant in 1812, that again, at this time, owing to the civil war in America, the distress in Bolton was so great that a public meeting had to be called to consider the situation, when a sum of £4000 was subscribed for relief.[483]